lab created diamond

On Mineral moissanite was discovered by Henri Moissan while examining rock samples from a meteor crater located in Canyon Diablo, Arizona, in 1893. At first, he mistakenly identified the crystals as diamonds, but in 1904 he identified the crystals as silicon carbide. The mineral form of silicon carbide was named moissanite in honor of Moissan later on in his life. The discovery in the Canyon Diablo meteorite and other places was challenged for a long time as carborundum contamination from human abrasive tools.                                      ^{lad creted  dioamond}

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Gem-cut moissanite set in a ring

Moissanite was introduced to the jewelry market in 1998.It is regarded as a diamond simulant, with some optical properties exceeding those of diamond. Its lower price - and to a lesser extent its ethical production - makes it a popular alternative to diamonds. Due in part to the similar thermal conductivity between moissanite and diamond, it is a popular target for scams; however, an electrical conductivity test (with a check for birefringence) should alert any buyer to fraud. On the Mohs scale it is a 9.5, with a diamond being a 10. Moissanite is stronger than sapphire or ruby. In many developed countries, the use of moissanite in jewelry has been patented; these patents expire in 2015 for the US, and 2016 in other countries. Moissanite gemstones are sometimes marketed under the trademark "Berzelian," a reference to the work of Berzelius on SiC.

Because of its hardness, it can be used in high-pressure experiments, as a replacement for diamond (see diamond anvil cell). Since large diamonds are usually too expensive to be used as anvils, synthetic moissanite is more often used in large-volume experiments. Synthetic moissanite is also interesting for electronic and thermal applications because its thermal conductivity is similar to that of diamonds. High power SiC electronic devices are expected to play an enabling and vital role in the design of protection circuits used for motors, actuators, and energy storage or pulse power systems.

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All applications of silicon carbide today use synthetic material, as the natural material is very scarce. Silicon carbide was first synthesized by Jöns Jacob Berzelius, who is best known for his discovery of silicon. Years later, Edward Goodrich Acheson produced viable minerals that could substitute diamond as an abrasive and cutting material. This was possible as moissanite is one of the hardest substances known, with a hardness below that of diamond and comparable with those of cubic boron nitride and boron. Since naturally occurring moissanite is so rare, lab-grown moissanite is the only commercially viable version of the mineral. More recently, pure synthetic moissanite has been made from thermal decomposition of the preceramic polymer poly(methylsilyne), requiring no binding matrix (e.g. cobalt metal powder).